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ANCIENT INDIAN GLYPH ANCIENT EASTERN INDIAN GLYPH HOW TO
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Jan Simek of the University of Tennessee. The image was first identified as Mississippian by Dr. (There’s another image of Red Horn in Missouri’s Picture Cave, and he’s a familiar figure in many stories told by modern communities descended from Mississippian culture, among them the Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, and Natchez nations.) A toothy mouth petroglyph in Devilstep Hollow Cave. The Falcon Warrior was a prominent figure in the continental belief system that spread during the Cahokian diaspora from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast and from Appalachia across the Mississippi River. Mississippian peoples would have instantly recognized the glyph as representing the Falcon Warrior, also known as Red Horn or Morning Star.

At the wingtips, each hand clutches a mace, which were both Mississippian weapons and symbols of priestly authority. Next to the axe glyph rears the most famous figure in the cave, an upright bird with outstretched wings or arms. Taken together, the glyph comprises a classic Mississippian warrior image. A bun of hair is collected at the back of the head. Atop the shaft of the weapon is a human head. A close up view of the “Falcon Warrior Panel”. woodpeckers are a common theme in Southeastern United States cave art.įlying as a pair, two woodpeckers point the way further into the cave, where a major panel presents four important images. Woodpecker petroglyphs drawn on the ceiling in Devilstep Hollow Cave in Tennessee.

ANCIENT INDIAN GLYPH ANCIENT EASTERN INDIAN GLYPH FULL

Soon after an adult can stand to full height, the first Devilstep Hollow petroglyphs appear. After advancing in a low crouch, the passage opens into long hallway. The ceiling rises, allowing supplicants to rise into a stoop.

Penetrating further requires a belly crawl through a body sized opening (video of the crawl here).

A few hundred feet inside the cave’s entrance, in utter darkness, the ceiling lowers. Woodpeckers served as the guides who ushered dead souls along that path. The underworld spirits controlled life and death and provided a pathway through which the souls of the dead were led on their journey to the stars. Mississippian peoples divided the universe into three realms: an upper realm of sky creatures and sky spirits like the thunderbirds, a middle realm of earth on which we live with all the other terrestrial flora and fauna, and an underworld beneath. A pre-dawn aerial view of the Head of the Sequatchie State Park near Pikeville, TN. The empty blackness beckoning from under the rock overhang presents an obvious entrance to the underworld. On the far side of the pool, a brow of rock caps a low opening. Inside, in the twilight zone lit by filtered daylight, a shelf leads around a pool of still water. An easy scramble into a sinkhole reveals the looming cave mouth. Lush eastern deciduous forests carpet the surrounding mountains. The setting of Devilstep Hollow is glorious, at the headwaters of the Sequatchie River. The panels of petroglyphs, pictographs, and mud glyphs in Devilstep Hollow tell a story related to the religious beliefs of the Mississppian people in much the same way that artwork in a modern church aims to shape the experience of visitors and open their hearts to a larger spiritual experience. Jump to the map The entrance to Devilstep Hollow Cave.ĭevilstep Hollow. One of the best and most significant examples of Indigenous dark zone cave art in the southeastern United States is found in Devilstep Hollow, where images made a thousand years ago adorn what seems to be a complete ceremonial space.

ANCIENT INDIAN GLYPH ANCIENT EASTERN INDIAN GLYPH HOW TO

As part of our Mural of America Project we have recorded the artwork and built VR models of the cave, curated a VR video flythrough, and provided a map to show you how to get there. The symbols inside define the cave as a religious place. They drew sacred art on the walls and lit the interior chambers with burning embers attached to the ceiling. Native Americans chose Devilstep Hollow Cave as a ceremonial site over a thousand years ago. Jan Simek, Distinguished Professor of Science, University of Tennessee “Devilstep Hollow Cave is one of the most beautiful and important prehistoric cave art sites in the Southeast” -Dr.

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